Lone woman standing

I dont think men realise how hard it is to be the lone woman
standing.. no they would never know.

They takes so many things for granted that its easy to miss the
efforts a woman has to put in to be standing alongside them.

Well lets start with the basics.. her attire. Too long - she's labeled
boring and too short makes you a too loose. So you wear a
slightly low neck tee and you have men hardly listening to what
you have to say.. lower attention span.. :)

Once they get past it they will judge you for what you speak and how
you speak. Soft will make you weak and a little strong will make you
too aggressive! What the hell ?!

Your status... the first thing to check will be her ring finger and if thats
missing then they will ask you out. And if you turn them down, well,
you have a hidden enemy for the rest of your time in that project.
For guys, its the done thing to flaunt their married status and kids.
A woman asking to adjust the timings to take care of her home and kids
will make her a liability.

The jokes... are incessantly on the wife, the girlfriend, the mother or the
bitchy lady boss. Whoever noticed that men too do the same?
Language is another issue. Swear words (all mostly based on woman) are
like interjections in any statement they make... so casual. Men get
irritated when they have to mind their language around a lady!
Btw..I have never understood why all the swear words are based on a woman.

And these are only some superficial points I made.

Standing as the lone woman many a times in my career so far has sadly, still
not taught me how to tame a man at work.. no, doesnt mean I know how to
do it in my personal life.. but it is surely something that oughta be learned in
order to crack into the group and get access to the same information that men
have.

Being pally doesnt help.. neither does being girly... or classy..
Is it that men still have not warmed up to the idea of a woman working
shoulder to shoulder with them and being equally successful?

And the Champagne flew

finally at 11:30pm on Saturday night :)
A relieved lot enjoyed the drink with laughter and fun
and light banter over the tough times in the recent past.

For me... now starts the phase of adjusting with the inlaws..
the defects that might get reported when the system goes
live on Monday! I hope they aren't too tough.

It will also see me trying to get the fine balance between
work and home... that is defects and new releases.
Its gonna be an exciting time ahead.

Oh Christmas vacation.. where art thou? :)

Ironing out creases

No matter how boring the weekly task of ironing my clothes
is, I realised today that I like it.

The reason? Well, that is the time when your mind is initially
focused on ironing out the creases and making sure the shirt
looks wrinkle free n stuff... but eventually the monotony of the
task sets in and puts you in semi-trance. You start thinking about
the various creases in your life and ways how to iron them out.
Will the steam work, should it be just less hot, or should you just
put it on maximum heat? Sadly, it doesn't have an option of soft
heat or a caring pull that will straighten out the situation.
But well, you get the point.

Indian men

are hypocrites !

This is fact that I have to live with for the rest of my life!
Cos I am going to be with Indian men in my personal life
as well as professional.
Wont talk about the personal part, but the professional
discrepancy was there for more than me to see today.

I have been raising a couple of points since the time I moved
into this project regarding the way the team operates and
carries itself at a client site. That was the first resistance I
met - saying I was new and should not be bringing in too many
reforms all at once, which was a valid point. But the same
behaviour has become rampant now and has spread across
many teams. So we call for another meeting and I raise my
voice again. This to much dismay makes my male colleagues
(who are indians) uncomfortable of having a lady speak more
strongly than they and that our bosses agree to my point...
no matter how valid it is. It has also resulted in me being
infamous to a certain extent for moving the team out of the
comfort zone. All that is lacking is a formal protest!

Then we have a big shot lady manager here, who is Dutch,
and she has a reputation of being strict and well, not ruthless
exactly, but authoritarian. She is known to openly slam mistakes
and caring two hoots about who she is dealing with.

When I was discussing this with my team member, he was all
praises for her. I did a small test on him to check if the same
will work had she been an Indian working with Indians. The
answer was an expected "No.. it would not work!"

This is so unfair. Indian men do not mind a foreigner (lady)
bossing around and on them.. but the same done by an Indian
lady would not go down well with them. This is so absolutely
ridiculous.

I understand that this boils down to the Indian culture and roots
and upbringing and stuff... but men working abroad are exposed
to so much more than what they have been in their childhood.
They are also much more capable of thinking on their own,
judging what is right or wrong, where to draw the line between
personal and professional and the works. But this has not changed
the way they think! :-(
The so-called Indian values are so imbibed in them that they do
not take anything outside of that as acceptable and will openly
rebel!

Whoever said life is fair!

The Wedding Prep

The wedding prepations are on in full swing....

Its a one time event and takes all it takes.
The pre-wedding, the wedding, the post-wedding..
the after-care..
You need to make sure the venue is right..
the food is there.. the guest list... the entry passes...
the accomodation... the rituals... the rehearsals...
man.. does it ever end?

Its on 27th of this month... goraj muhurta..
Be there...

Currently Readin

"दास डोंगरी राहतो " by गो नी दांडेकर

Its about this great saint called Ramdas.
He was Chhatrapati Shivaji's guru, mentor.

So far an interesting read.

Have you

ever thought, why addition is easy and subtraction so difficult?

Another status message

put up by my friend on her gtalk.

"If you didn't try, then don't repent..
Cos you didn't try when you had the chance to hold it."

Man, is it cryptic or what :)

Found another one...

another lookalike I mean.
Man... can you believe it.. ! :)
This place is like a backup of the world!

Freedom

is Priceless !

Was watching the "Jailed Abroad" series on NGC.
It had this episode on an American woman jailed
in Cuba for carrying cocaine.

No matter where you are stuck... in a boring job,
a dead-end marriage, in your head, in the quicksand...
everybody realises this at some point or the other...
that Freedom is truly Priceless.

Dog days

Spoke to my dog yesterday.

He obviously doesnt speak much.. but we had a good
conversation. He kept looking for me underneath the
computer table (cos we were talking over the internet :P)
and just sat there for a long time listening to my blabber
and responding in his own ways. :)

Oh he does miss me... and I miss him sooooo much :(

lol......

मांजर आणि नवरा; कुठेही नेउन सोडला, तरी संध्याकाली घरीच परत येतो

A friend put this as his status message and it means...

"A cat and a husband... leave them in damn part of this world...
but will eventually return home in the evening. "

Lookalikes

This is the weirdest place I've been..
I see so many lookalikes around... thats strange and
kinda eerie. Seen 4 so far who look so so similar to
people I know..
Hmmm wonder how many more to go ;)

Another one from the fantastic duo

Sandeep Khare and Salil Kulkarni.

The previous post is a famous song of theirs.
Posting a stanza from another awesome song on the
life of a common god-fearing person.

धुतलेला सात्विक सदरा, तुटलेली एकच गुंडी
टकलावर अजून रुळते ... अदृश्य लांबशी शेंडी
मी पंतोजीना भ्यालो, मी देवालाही भ्यालो
मी मनात सुध्धा माझ्या... कधी दंगा केला नाही

Tried to translate.. but sorry.. some day.